A primary
category containing information pertaining to disasters and disaster relief,
including aid in the form of materials, services, gifts, and loans.

Subject categories and
sub-categories fully available for research are bolded. Closed categories and sub-categories have a simple phrase
describing their contents.

††††††††† †††††††††††††††††† ††††††††† DESCRIPTION OF FILE CODES

File
Code† †††††††††††† Description

DI†††††† †† ††††††††††††††† Disasters† (0.2 ft.; box 1)

This primary subject category contains material
relating to proposed regulatory changes in the Small Business Administrationís
Disaster Relief Program; the amending of the Disaster Relief Act of 1974; and
requests for federal aid to prevent future natural disasters, or help
economically depressed areas.

DI001†††††††††††††††††††† Accidents† (0.5 ft.; boxes 1-2)

This secondary subject category contains material
relating to the accidents at the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear power
plants; the 1981 sewer explosion in Louisville, Kentucky; the 1983 sinking of
the Glomar Java Sea off† the coast of Vietnam; the Air Force jet crash
at Gander, Newfoundland (1985); the 1987 explosion at the Henderson, Nevada
rocket fuel plant; the dioxin contamination at Times Beach, Missouri; the 1981
levee break at McDonald Island, California; the 1988 plane crashes at
Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and at Lockerbie, Scotland; and international
agreements regarding nuclear accidents and collisions at sea.

DI002†††††††††††††††††††† Natural Disasters† (9.6 l.ft.;
boxes 2-26)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to
reports from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reviewing a natural
disaster and then requesting a declaration or denial of a major disaster.
Letters from Congressional, state, and local officials supporting the need for
major disaster declarations are also included.†
Natural disasters covered are storms, flooding, tornados, earthquakes,
crop freezes, landslides, drought and the hurricanes Alicia, Diana, Elena,
Gloria, Kate, Juan, and Gilbert.† This
category also contains letters, memos, reports, talking points, speech drafts
and publications on the following subjects: amendments to the Earthquake
Hazards Relief Act of 1977; personal requests for assistance due to a disaster
or difficulty with a federal agency; the dioxin clean-up of Times Beach,
Missouri; the clean-up of river sedimentation following the Mt. St. Helens
volcano eruption; requests for fire suppression assistance; material covering
the drought that affected agriculture from 1983 through 1988 - including
material on H.R. 5015, Drought Assistance Bill of 1988; assistance for
international disasters, particularly the Mexico City earthquake of 1985 and
the Armenian earthquake of 1988; and H.R. 2707 - the Disaster Relief and
Emergency Assistance Amendments of 1988.†